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Editorial
Things can only get worse...
Along with just about every culture secretary in history, Jeremy Hunt, the new secretary of state for culture in England, has declared how lucky he is to get the coveted culture post in the new government.
But heartening as his declaration of affection for the arts is, the real question is what happens next.
The good news is that lottery cash will be redistributed to good causes, with an extra £50m each eventually going to the arts council and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The bad news, of course, is that this won’t make up for the cuts in the department for culture budget this year – let alone next year, when things can only get worse.
The culture budget is being cut by £88m. That includes a £27m cut to the Olympic budget, leaving £61m to find. The details of where the remaining £61m will come from were due to be announced as Museums Journal went to press but it’s a sobering thought that the cut is more than the annual budget of the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council.
The problem with trying to replace revenue from the department for culture with lottery cash is that they were designed to do different things. Money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, welcome as it has been, is for capital development and short-term projects.
But now might be the time to re-examine that formula. Museums and the government need to question the emphasis on bigger, better buildings, if only from the point of view of sustainability.
And it’s not as if a model for lottery funding contributing towards revenue costs doesn’t exist already – for years, the arts council has given revenue funding to its regularly-funded organisation without anyone batting an eyelid.
On a less gloomy note, last month marked the launch of Museum Practice online. The first issue provides an in-depth guide to carbon footprinting your museum or gallery, so now you can think about your green future while coping with the blue and yellow present.
To read it, log on to: www.museumpractice.org
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
www.twitter.com/sharonheal
But heartening as his declaration of affection for the arts is, the real question is what happens next.
The good news is that lottery cash will be redistributed to good causes, with an extra £50m each eventually going to the arts council and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The bad news, of course, is that this won’t make up for the cuts in the department for culture budget this year – let alone next year, when things can only get worse.
The culture budget is being cut by £88m. That includes a £27m cut to the Olympic budget, leaving £61m to find. The details of where the remaining £61m will come from were due to be announced as Museums Journal went to press but it’s a sobering thought that the cut is more than the annual budget of the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council.
The problem with trying to replace revenue from the department for culture with lottery cash is that they were designed to do different things. Money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, welcome as it has been, is for capital development and short-term projects.
But now might be the time to re-examine that formula. Museums and the government need to question the emphasis on bigger, better buildings, if only from the point of view of sustainability.
And it’s not as if a model for lottery funding contributing towards revenue costs doesn’t exist already – for years, the arts council has given revenue funding to its regularly-funded organisation without anyone batting an eyelid.
On a less gloomy note, last month marked the launch of Museum Practice online. The first issue provides an in-depth guide to carbon footprinting your museum or gallery, so now you can think about your green future while coping with the blue and yellow present.
To read it, log on to: www.museumpractice.org
Sharon Heal, editor
sharon@museumsassociation.org
www.twitter.com/sharonheal